I’m curious to see if there are any data trends here. What do you guys do to earn a living? Is there a specific field of work that people come from to end up here? Is there a specific field of work that seems to be utterly excluded from considering their consumption levels?
The devils henchmen eh.
What's the culture like inside? Do you or anyone even drink it, or is there like a theme of 'oh God no we'd never touch it'
So selling brawndo?
It’s got electrolytes!
It's what the plants need!
Crave!
Graphic designer at a natural history museum
Wow new dream job unlocked
I'm a graphic designer at a place that makes coloring books and sticker books.
Very cool 😎
That sounds like a dream job
I do love my job. I just wish it paid a bit better. 🤷🏻♀️
I'm an electrical engineer working on wind and solar. Sure, it's not completely anticonsumption, but wind and solar are worlds away better than the alternatives to make power in terms of waste, emissions, environmental damage, etc.
Mechanical engineer in solar here
I'm also in the energy efficiency business. Trying to help customers (mainly offices, governmental buildings,schools, care...) save energy and install solar. I've been alarmed about the climate for 30 years. We are all consuming far too much while still being unhappy.
Greenhouse horticulturalist :] I care about nature and the environment. And believe it or not its actually really difficult to stay environmentally conscious while in the horticulture industry. Some people think profit is more important than preventing invasive species from killing our ecosystems.
I work in a similar field. I grow produce hydroponically and also teach kids how to grow their own food. We utilize sustainable urban agriculture and have a rooftop greenhouse. It’s supposed to be environmentally conscious, but it’s very energy intensive to have a controlled environment going 24/7. We do use less water, no pesticides, and we have a supplemental solar hookup. If you’re ever in the NYC area and want to check out our work, hit me up. I’m always looking to meet new people in the industry.
I rarely go to New York but next time I happen to be there I absolutely will. Do you mind telling me the name of where you work? Or DMing me? Just for future reference
I'm always slightly alarmed at how much crap gardeners will buy.
Same! I get to at least do educational talks to visitors about IPM and supporting native ecosystems. But my goodness do we use a ton of water, and our rain collecting cisterns have been broken since before I started. We will probably have to look for a grant we can apply for to get the funds to fix them. We recycle our pots and soil though!
I work in hydroponics and it’s promoted as being environmentally friendly but it often isn’t We use way less water but all the pumps, lights and fans can be energy intensive. Unless you’re using renewable energy it can be come detrimental, both in terms of costs and the environment.
I guess you replace some impacts with others though right? Instead of fertilizer run off or soil depredation you have higher energy-related emissions? Which I feel ks easier to address than the several earth boundaries affected by conventional agriculture
Yea, it’s a trade off of sorts. Overall, I think the technology is great and has a lot of potential, and I agree that the issues it raises are easier to address than with conventional agriculture. I think it’ll be an amazing resource once we start using more renewable energy. I just wish there was more transparency and honesty about how much energy it uses currently. I’ve often seen hydroponics presented as a technology with no down sides, and that’s just not true, most things have some down side and that’s ok.
Public school teacher. I care about the future. Also, I'm poor.
I’m on my way there :) College is sm more fun when everyone is constantly reminding you how poor you will be and how miserable the job is. /s
Like, I believe you but somebody still has to be doing it… America’s education system is a sad state of affairs at the moment.
Glad to hear you are working towards something you believe in! The job has its ups and downs, and I hope you find a position that has enough "ups" to keep it fulfilling for you. I'm 17 years in, and still want to keep on teaching (most days).
Me too! I’m a substitute high school teacher so also poor.
I also work for a school cuz I don't have the experience needed to do what I went to school for and I'm at least not contributing to capitalism with my work
Same!!!!
I’m a public school teacher in Aus and we’re actually paid quite well. Above average in fact.
Same here, K-8 music teacher.
Book publishing!
No, stop, no more new books, we have enough.
(Joke, I sell used books)
I do feel this about low quality books that publishers churn out (mostly about stock photo children’s book that only serve to turn a profit the fastest way possible).
I try to fight it by putting a lot of effort into emphasizing quality in content and art for newer titles.
Retired Shoe Cobbler (repair) now trophy husband
My man
Our man
Guess we found Daniel day-lewis
I work for Costco, in returns specifically. Seeing the food waste and “I don’t want this anymore” products makes me so disappointed in our species.
I’ve had to return two things at Costco and I was mad about it both times. Peanut butter thanks to a recall and my favorite cheese which went moldy in the still sealed container a few days after I bought it. I hate food waste.
"I don't want this anymore" = "I was just using your return policy as a free rental because I'm broke"
Exactly. Or, I don’t need it anymore because we act like this is rent a center and got a new one.
I am a Mechanical Engineer that designs automated food processing equipment, primarly fried foods, snacks / chips /prepared foods.
I am part of the problem, I actually dont consume most of the products the equipment we design and build produce.
I also enjoy a good paycheck. I'd rather be working for Engineers without borders, or random non for profit engineering companies that support sustainability. They are signiricantly more competitive to get hired at those company, and sadly the pay is ususally less than I'd like.
I just find other ways to reduce consumption.
Same here. Manufacturing engineer that works primarily with automation.
The gross overconsumption I see in industry is partly why I ended up here.
What pisses me off so damn much is there is so much talent that are willing to work to solve sustainability problems, but if the solutions dont make the bean counters, finance bros, share holders and stake holders a profit in the short term they arent pursued.
I'm a cook, my whole job is seeing how many ways we can use something up.
I grow produce and there’s a chef I work with, who I love because he will find a use from any scraps I give him. He’s so creatively efficient that it’s admirable.
Farmer, I work at a nursery specializing in native and edible plants.
I love that! I’ve been doing research into foraging native plants in my region lately. I’m doing a focus on edible seeds right now. Found out about wild sages. Very cool!
i work in the luxury furniture industry and after learning more about fast furniture, i'm only buying secondhand or using my employee credit to get actual quality pieces from my company lol
I’m in interiors / heavy timber and, lord, the luxury design industry is awful. So much waste between fabrication / manufacturing all the way to the end product. (Mostly vacant vacation houses that get used twice a year) it’s disheartening and soul crushing at best.
the furniture industry as a whole is such a mess lol
the average consumers have no idea what quality looks like now and are willing to throw money at something just because it's expensive
It's not our fault, we've been tricked and given in misinformation our whole lives by corporations. I have no idea what quality looks like either, but at least I try to go for "is it real wood" or "is it heavy".
totally valid! it shouldn't be on the consumer to educate themselves, especially when big companies have no incentive to make good, long-lasting furniture these days 🫠
It’s been like this since the 90s. My grandma gave me “expensive” furniture as hand me downs and it’s just fucking MDF stapled together, cotton filler, and glue lol. People think they’re getting fabulous deals because (like you said it’s expensive) it looks good and it’s on sale. Wow! Forty percent off? This week only!?
I make my own furniture - nothing great looking, just functional. Lots of dimensional lumber and plywood. My family thinks I’m absolutely ridiculous when I (attempt to) decline their aggressive furniture purchases.
State Biologist focusing on conservation.
👏 my dream. Did you go to graduate school? masters or phd? Wondering what I should do to get there
Hi! So I actually only have my bachelors, I would like to go for my Master’s (my dream is to be an ornithologist) but because of finances and also I would have to leave my job -I can’t. But I’m planning in the next couple of years to attend an online masters course for wildlife conservation.
In school definitely make connections with people and the professors And try to help on labs- it goes a long way! I tell a lot of people for working in biology a lot of it is who you know/connect with. What is it you’re actually interested in? Because there are so many paths.
I also did a lot of volunteer work during and after I finished school, and I was still volunteering while working as a biological consultant. I always knew I wanted to join the State (and many biologists do because it’s one of the few steady jobs for us)- so whenever I met someone from CDFW I’d always talk to them and they gave me suggestions on what to know and etc. and I ended up being offered a job shortly after.
Currently unemployed, and looking for inspiration here 😂
same here. having no income forces me to be pretty frugal lol
We're on the same boat. I don't even know what to do anymore 🥲
I work in health care. The amount of waste in packaging, food, utilities, and laundry that I see is staggering, so I try and reduce my personal consumption.
Ik I think this sub would shit if they knee how much plastic hospitals go through in a day
Same here. Some of it is necessary waste (infection control purposes, etc.) but most of it is just unnecessary.
The amount of gloves we go through
Short time lurker first commenter here. I'm a semi retired window cleaner; retired from cleaning windows on high end houses and mc mansions.
These affluent women are bored and rich. I've had long term customers that remodel bedrooms, kitchens etc every 5 or so years bc they can.
It's shocking the waste involved. On the flip side, I furnished a three bdrm house with recycled furniture.
as a former carpenter in austin, tx i can confirm this
Stay at home mom. I'm not bringing in any income, so I want to save as much money as possible cooking things at home and not buying junk. I also don't want my kid to inherit a shit show of a planet.
That's my Dream job! :)
Same! I love my job. I make it a goal to buy as little as possible. Grow veggie garden, make cleaning products, thrift everything and shop garage sales.
I do autopsies.
Is there a lot of consumption in that industry?
A lot of our ppe is single use. I go through hundreds of gloves per day, gowns, hair nets, face shields. Some cases require multiple body bags to contain fluid.
On a philosophical level: life is very short and endless consumption doesn't make people happy. Death isn't fair and it's coming for you. So figure out a way to happiness.
On a personal level, I try to live frugally and being content with what I have. Capitalism is a problem and I like reading perspectives of people who feel the same way.
Eeeppp...I wasn't expecting that 😳
Is there anything that doing autopsies enlightened you about, or changed how you do things? Seeing people with terrible lungs from smoking for example.
Arborist. I’ve been working around forests and timber for most of my professional career.
Public health
How are you doing after the past four+ years?
Honestly, I wasnt super impacted by the burn out a lot of PH professionals experienced during the height of COVID. I’m just now beginning to work in the field (while in school I worked in social work, then academia and research) after graduating with my MPH this past spring so! I’m still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 🐿️ and optimistic af haha but thank you for checking in 💛
Big dog.
Cannabis
Thank you for your service
ESL teacher (English as a second language)
I drive a semi truck.
Thank you! Trucking tops the list of "important jobs that I personally really really don't want to do"
I'm a former trucker myself
Believe it or not amazon... sorry. :(
Also Amazon.
I work in a place that sells used books I am the assistant of the owner who is a collector of comic books.
I also work as VJ/Video operator in a concert hall.
I work in industrial maintenance. It’s my job to keep machinery running rather than replacing it.
The plant I work for makes parts in support of the electrical utility grid. I feel good about what I do.
City planner
Facilities Planner here!
Me too!
Architect here!
I’m right on script. I’m a mender. I run a small clothing repair business (villagemending.com).
It’s not enough to support me yet, but I’m also looking at starting a non-profit repair space with my city.
Love this! I wish I had learned to reupholster and refinish furniture as a living… those people are always booked out for 2+years in my area.
And I send my leather shoes and boots out for repairs every few years. Saves so much money.
Wow, your work is beautiful! I love the visible mending you show. I am bookmarking your site. My cashmere and wool sweaters always wear out at the elbows.
Small world! I follow you on insta and know you when you were at FYS! Hope you’re doing well! 🧶💕
I merchandise for a soda company. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of plastic
I'm a nurse in a retirement home.
Nurse in neonatal intensive care
I specialize in nervous breakdowns and oversleeping, these days, but I have 20 years experience with anxiety and am fluent in depression.
Me too, depression and trauma are my specialty.
I enjoy your humour about it anyway :)
Im a pathologist. Any medic profession is prone to be very wasteful and contamminant. In my case, its formaldehyde. That shit is really nasty and we waste tons of it into the enviroment.
Why is it wasted? What are you using it for that is so wasteful?
Im a therapist that works with children that have developmental delays
I work in sustainability assurance (so, auditing sustainability claims companies make in their reporting). Currently working on developing methodology for how we will assure CSRD Sustainability Statements (first set of companies have to report in 2025 on 2024!).
I’m curious how you got into this. I have a financial compliance/internal audit background, and would love to switch to a more meaningful industry where my experience can be applied.
I work in cabinetry - the amount of waste is horrifying, starting from how our 4x8/5x8 panels and moulding are packaged and sent to us, with layers of Styrofoam, and peel coats. Then there's edgetape, which covers the visible sides of panels and cabinet parts, a lot of which is trimmed and discarded. Then there's MDF panels, which of are milled out and shaped to make our cutesy little cabinet shaker-style doors. Then there's the paint shop - aerosol paints are notoriously damaging to the atmosphere and environment, and the sprayers are very inefficient. Then shipping - our cabinets are shipped assembled, taking up a lot of truck space. Every single cabinet and part is shrink wrapped. Also, a lot of the materials we use are cheap and destined to be replaced and sent to the landfills in 5-10 years. On top of all of this, our offcuts, trim cuts ands and damaged cabinets are all broken down and thrown out. We produce a lot of waste.
I would never buy a brand new home, or get a company like this to renovate my existing kitchen.
I'm trying to get into a new line of work.
I clean peoples houses and do clean up work for the city. I use my bike to get to work
CPA. I have killed trees.
Im a nurse, we waste a lot of stuff. Everything is individually wrapped and we throw out a lot of packaging, also there’s no recycling. I understand how it’s important for things to be clean and sterile but it hurts.
Data Engineer in the Finance Sector. The more I see ostentatious displays of wealth being thrown around, the more anti-consumerist I get lol They could be doing sooooo much more with that money then spending it on stuff to show off
3D modeling engineer. But the job that had the most anti-consumption impact was my moving job years ago, people got a lot of stuff.
HVAC technician
I do purchasing. Every single day I’m buying things and I’m totally disgusted about how companies spend absurd money on stuff that will end in a landfill and how all companies are just aiming to lower prices while maximizing gains without any concern about consumption of resources
OMFG YES! And the amount of "freebies" vendors send for no reason that will almost always land in a dump somewhere is INFURIATING!
It does feel good to know that I can combat some tiny percentage of it, but it's really opened my eyes to the volume of waste that companies can produce.
I am professionally hated by every God.
Politician?
Commercial HVAC here. Seeing the newer equipment like minisplits and VRF/Heat recovery VRF systems that are stupid efficient is really interesting, especially the latter- instead of pulling heat out of a space and rejecting it to the atmosphere, you can take it from one room that's too warm and send it to another space that's too cool. Even newer equipment are integrating heating water with the 'waste' heat for larger facilities like hotels or schools or apartments, it's really interesting stuff. It's a damn shame though that we couldn't have gotten the ball rolling on stuff like this earlier on rather than scrambling to get it out now, especially with how needlessly politicized efficiency standards and environmental concerns regarding refrigerants have gotten. We could have done a lot more a lot sooner.
I work at a Corporate Law Firm in a high rise with other large corporations (Meta, etc.). Watching the incredible wastefulness makes me ill. I forced everyone in our office to start using non-disposable dishes and silverware. It's not that hard to put it in the dishwasher, people! One small step.
Bartender, personal finance as a day time side hustle.
Edit: its cool to see how many different walks of life end up here. I think it goes to show regardless of career or politics there's a consensus that mass consumption is problematic.
Currently unemployed/semi-disabled for health reasons. Used to work as a cook in restaurants.
Now I build guitars and woodwork in general as a hobby. It's something that I do to try to keep me active and I can do it at my own slow ass pace.
I’m a pre-med student and I work at a coffee shop and a restaurant. Mainly just here bc I grew up with a lot of hoarding relatives and a lot of overconsumption in my home.
I'm an engineer employed by the US military. It pays the bills (barely) but damn there is so much waste, mostly due to policy. Just yesterday we were cleaning out a building and there was so much material (brand new pipes, rolls of shrink wrap, bar stock, etc.) headed for the dumpster that I would have happily used at home but nowadays taking government trash home is considered stealing. Talking to the old folks, 20-30 years ago it was acceptable to bring your truck in on nightshift and load up from the scrap bins. It saved the government money and was nice perk for employees.
I hate these stupid trash rules that companies have nowadays.
When I worked at Kroger (grocery store) anything that the store was throwing away I could basically nab for home use. I have a big Rubbermaid trash can that I use in the garage, a pair of 4 foot bug lights, wood bench, lots of scrap metal, “expired” food and just tons of stuff over the 5 years I worked there.
Now I’m at Walmart Supply Chain and literally we will throw entire 18 wheelers of freight into the dumpsters because WM doesn’t want to pay shipping or something equally brain dead.
Public school teacher, currently a stay at home mom/ subbing a few days a week.
My husband is a bus driver for Chicago’s public transit system.
Petroleum Engineer in the energy industry. Started in the oilfield, and now I work for a company that prevents catastrophic failures of critical machines (think turbines at a power plant). I do a lot of work these days in petrochemicals and power generation. Over the years I've found that it's easiest to drive change from within, and most of my coworkers (even in the "evil" oil industry!) were more anti-consumption than people I knew outside of it. Most of us also identify as conservationists. It's been a good experience to learn firsthand what's really happening in oil and gas, and just how high our energy needs are.
Transportation engineer. Theres downstream implications from overconsumption, particularly with freight and trucking, but I dont directly interact or enable overconsumption in the sense you might think.
Theres a lot of excess warehousing in socal due to fast consumption/same day shipping. In my opinion these vacant warehousing projects could have been allocated towards more direct social solutions such as providing housing, public space, etc.
software dev. I'd like to think that I contribute to reduction of paper usage.
Urban Forestry
Licensed tattoo artist in Portland!
I work for an estate auction company. Unfortunately we still throw away a lot of stuff, but we do our best to reuse things. Old towels get used for cleaning or to protect furniture when we have to stack it. We reuse the paper that comes from the moving companies to ship stuff out. And when we do cleanouts, the movers won’t move liquids (cleaning and bath products, cooking oils, etc) so all of us try to take them home if they’re still good enough to use. We were all just talking the other day about how we now struggle with buying retail after working this job for so long.
Multi drop driver.
Cybersecurity
Paper shuffling accounts person.
I'm a commercial/industrial electrician. The amount of waste I see at job sites is over the top. Since I've seen this I only get things that I can use for years and then give to the thrfit store. I know my efforts aren't going to counteract the damage corporations do but at least I'm trying. I also enjoy r/zerowaste
I’m a stay at home mom, but i thrift (mostly from the bins) and remake the clothing into cool pieces to sell. Also the occasional resell from the thrift if I don’t end up using it.
Third party logistics, it's awful 😖
I work in a genetics and protein expression lab. Science itself is wasteful unfortunately, single use plastic and sterility go hand in hand. However we have a pipette tip recycling/reuse program with a local company the turns them into goods, and we clean and reuse our ice packs when we get reagents and donate them to local meal delivery charities.
Graphic designer at a t-shirt company. I’ve gotten somewhat disillusioned with the waste but have tried where I can to suggest things to reduce it.
I’m applying for disability, and I’m a Historian, Philosopher, Political Scientist, and Maker. I do fabric arts, collage, music, wood carving (spoons), and I’m considering branching out into Only Fans and/or TikTok this year. I can also chew gum and walk at the same time, lol.
In my former life, I was pursuing a master’s degree in education, I was going to be a high school social studies teacher. I was unable to complete the program due to severe mental health conditions.
Being unable to work for the past year has given me the time and space to see the whole system for what it is, and my role in it. I’ve struggled, but I’ve also never felt more creative and fulfilled, and worthy outside of my “productivity.”
Being outside of consumption has made me feel more free than I ever have in 36 years.
Ps: My grandmother has been supporting me while I apply for disability, which she is also on, and she also supports my creative endeavors, and my cat. She seriously rescued me, and I am so incredibly grateful for her.
🌈
Also: I have worked enough jobs to fill up one whole side of a legal pad, so it’s not like I didn’t try 🤣 I started working at 14, and I’ve never made $25,000 in a year, even working full time. So I guess I feel like I’ve done “what I was supposed to do,” and I have nothing to show for it.
Clinician/therapist on a PACT team, and union stagehand
Manufacturing. Which is pretty pro-consumer. But I love being as efficient as possible with resources so manufacturing is a good fit.
Corporate AV, which must be the most wasteful industry on the planet. Countless gallons of diesel and jet fuel spent to get equipment and attendees across the country for the “ANNUAL AMAZON MCDONALDS CORPORATE CONFERENCE TRADESHOW AND SUPERPAC,” where they spend a week hearing about their quarterly profits, motivational speakers, while taking promotional plastic junk from vendors and picking at a giant buffet of food that gets thrown directly into the trash an hour later.
All in the name of tax write-offs. A sickening, inhuman level of waste and excess
DME/AT technician
(Durable Medical Equipment/Assistive Technology)
Architect checking in 👋🏼
Warehouse/distribution center. My first few months on the job was basically me asking the universe:
“who the fuck is buying all this CRAP!?”
Then there’s the plastic wrap, cardboard, strapping, and damages while unloading because production numbers and metrics are more important than making sure cargo is actually secure. Just Walmart things.
I walk dogs
Amazon warehouse bc it's just clock in, work, clock out, go home, no frills or anything I need to do with the community there. I love it bc I just get paid to do my job. I don't have to worry about direct customers either because I just stow items on shelves
My rate is insane tho. Stowing 200 items an hour just for $22 an hour. When Amazon gets so much off those 200 items I stowed in said hour. Just seeing all the random shit people will use their money on, I stow fart spray, Victoria secret perfume, fish aquarium PH test strips and Clorox cleaning wipes all in the same bin. Anything that has a flammable label is stowed in the same area so it's cool to just spend half my shift just looking at stuff when the job is lax. Every bin has different items and there are definitely like 100k plus individual items in that one part of the building I work in. It's crazy how much consumption is happening just at amazon, and there are countless over workers who do the same as me so yeah they make so much money off us to give us a dime
I'm an appliance repair technician! Some weeks I'm making the equivalent of $30 an hour but most of the time it's more like 25
I'm a UPS driver. That's really what made me hate the wasteful society. I'm a cog in the wheel of consumption.
I used to load missiles, bombs, and ammo on USAF aircraft, as well as maintain the aircraft weapons software and hardware. Now I stay home and take care of my teens.
Is anti-consumption also anti-skepticism because this seems like a dubious way to get data to profile users.
Healthcare IT, specifically working with processes that reduce paper usage. Healthcare, in general, produces an absurd amount of plastic waste. Plenty of it is necessary, but there's a lot of room for improvement.
I work in biotech managing clinical trial programs
Research Technician for perennial agricultural programs
Back office financial firm work. The antithesis of where I'd like to work, but it's a great team and good pay, so it's hard to beat the lack of stress. Side gig since I'm part of a DINK couple and have time is leather working (pays for itself and I'm able to make quality, likely BIFL stuff).
I don't think my work in particular lead me to any conclusions as much as any job would have likely allowed me to see the world through my perspective and I would have come to similar conclusions.
i work in personal injury
Bookkeeper.
Corporate peddler for now, working on my grad degree in sustainability :) :) :)
I'm in freight logistics, so I help customers move freight around. The supply chain is all about consumption to the max, but I gotta work somewhere.
I'm an office assistant at a medical college for a Big Ten university.
Crane Operator for Boeing.
I train AI from home, I'm a small farmer/gardener, building my own small house. I like to live on land nobody wants that's covered in invasive species. Usually with solar, rain catchment, cellular internet. My own guilty thing is we use starlink here but at least I share it with my neighbor. I'm poor but I have enough. I used to work in IT and I hated it. All I want now is to live in a climate/location where I don't need climate control at home and where ideally I can ride a bike to town.
Biologist, currently working at an aquarium
Family therapist who works with families where children have sexually abused other children.
I semi-retired at 40. Moved away from the US to my home country and work online now. Ever since I left the daily hustle,excessive consumerism oriented lifestyle I used to have in the US, I'm much happier and fulfilled.
Dean of an art school
Chemist at a diagnostics firm. I run chromatography assays on urine and blood samples to test for disease indicators.
I work at the intersection of finance, healthcare, and software. Specifically, I test software that manages bank accounts specifically used to finance healthcare needs. My entire professional life has been in financial technology.
Thankfully, my current corner of the industry produces surprisingly little physical waste.
The worst waste I have seen in financial technology was in the mortgage industry, specifically closing packages: You go to an office where they printed out two copies of a 300 page or more set of documents, you and the notary sign them, then they get sent back to the the mortgage company. Those documents then get scanned and audited, then they USUALLY get shredded. Sometimes they get warehoused. It's thousands and thousands of pieces of paper that are printed just to be shredded within three days to a week. It all gets recycled so I suppose it could be far worse, but even when there was a HUGE push towards electronic signing, it requires EVERY county to accept e-recorded documents... which will never happen down south, where they require wet signatures. Because fuck making it easy Sigh.
I work with energy audits and benchmarking. I’m still at the beginning of my career (24) but I hope I get to work in pure sustainability roles.
I’m an instructional designer.
Distiller
Server at a mom and pop Thai/Vietnamese/Laotian restaurant. Currently finishing undergrad for environmental studies.
Healthcare. And the amount of nitrile gloves I use a day is absurd. The healthcare waste is insane.
I'm a librarian... part time at an elementary school and part time at a community college!
ICU nurse! As others said there is so much waste in healthcare—not quite sure how it could be addressed while maintaining sterility but I would love to see it done
I run a forest school in the UK for teenagers who don't fit into mainstream education, I'm a none for profit organisation so it's very make do and mend.
Library Director
I’m a therapist … trying to help people figure out what emotional holes they are filling with stuff lol
Hospice and palliative care social worker - I provide in-home care and cover a wide area (40-mile radius). The only real consumption in my role is printing resources and fuel for my car.
Probably not the most conventional career to hold similar beliefs as yall but:
Military Officer
Nurse.
Health care creates A LOT of trash in the name of infection control!!
I help my dad restore, photograph, and list used motorcycle parts on eBay. It’s crazy how many people crash their bikes and just replace every part, when a little chrome polish and detailing spray goes a longgggg way.
I work for a non profit research centre on circular economy and industrial ecology. We look at urban metabolisms and try to close the loops.
Cook at a vegan restaurant
Coffee shop/book store with a publishing house out of the back. I’d also like to still teach intro level English courses at universities or colleges and create open educational resources for said courses and accessible language learning materials!
Elementary age after school childcare. Been doing for 17 years. I get to plant seeds in the minds of our youth. I get to encourage them/teach them to think for themselves.
I like the older grades because we can have some meaningful conversations about the state of our world and how we all play a part in it.
High school art teacher!
Environmental water monitoring for an Indigenous government
Advertising for a soft drink company.
Shit... I mean, I needle-felt mushroom scarves to sell at street fairs!
Pfew... almost blew it there.